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Fayette approves first SPLOST in more than a decade

Fayette County voters overwhelmingly approved a one-cent Special Local Option Sales Tax Tuesday, the first in more than a decade.

With all 36 precincts reporting, 70 percent - or 5,851 - of the votes cast Tuesday were in favor of the SPLOST while 2,567 opposed it.

It is the first SPLOST to be approved in more than 10 years, Fayette Board of Elections Supervisor Floyd Jones said.

“We haven’t had a standalone SPLOST in a while so it’s hard to say it’s a low turnout,” Jones said “When you have 76,000 registered voters and only 8,000 show up that could be considered low but there’s no true way to compare whether this was a low turnout for a SPLOST vote.”

The money will be used to finance transportation, stormwater infrastructure, public safety, and facilities. Taxes will be collected from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2023.

Fayette is expected to collect about $141 million in the 2017 SPLOST. The county will get 46 percent of the money with the rest being distributed to Peachtree City, Fayetteville, Tyrone and Brooks based on population size.

Tuesday’s results are unofficial returns. The county Board of Elections will meet Friday to certify the returns.